My Visit to The Orchid Show: Patrick Blanc’s Vertical Gardens

Centerpiece in the Haupt Conservatory atrium

I finally made the trek up to the NYBG yesterday for my fourth annual visit to the Orchid Show. This year marks the show’s 10th anniversary, with the theme being vertical gardens. Botanist, provacateur, and vertical gardening artist Patrick Blanc, aka “The Green Man,” created this year’s stunning displays. Orchids really are the perfect plant for constructing breathtaking vertical gardens, with their long, arching flower spikes and their ability to produce massive sprays of blooms. These plants sometimes grow on vertical surfaces in nature—tree trunks, branches, rocks, etc—so a vertical garden is a very logical way to show them off!

My mom was in town and we made the trip together. We both took about a million photos, and of course I want to share some of my favorites with you. Get ready for a hefty dose of orchid porn, starting…NOW.

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“The Orchid Show: Patrick Blanc’s Vertical Gardens” is Now Open!

The New York Botanical Garden‘s tenth annual Orchid Show opened this past Saturday! I haven’t had a chance to go yet, but my friend and her mom went the day before the show opened to the public, on “member day.” My friend texted me from there and said that I was going to freak out over how amazing it is!! She sent me a few photos from her visit…and the displays certainly do look stunning:

Vertical Garden – Photo by Monique Hartl
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